The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1887-09-09

NUItHnAh OF u0Wn, we rose,
NV and performed
~h AVIAN such ablutions q
t VMatHH circumstances
NJ @1 would allow, and
N III generally made
"\AXw ready to start. !
'NTS@A am bound to say
that when there
was suf11cient light to enable us to see each
others faces, I, for one, burst out in aroay
OF laughter. Jobs fat and comfortable
countenance was swollen out to nearly
twice Its natural size from MOSQUITO bites,
and Leo's condition was not much better
Indeed, Of tho three I had come or much
the best, probably owing to the toughness
OF my dark skin, and to the fact that a good
deal OF 1t was covered by hair, for since we
started from England I had allowed INV
naturally luxuriant beard to grow at ita
sweet will. But the other two were,
comparatively speaking, clean shaved,
which OF course gave the enemy a larger
extent OF open country to oper 9 on.
though rs for Mahomed, the mo .Juitoes.
recognizing tho tasto Of a true believer,
would not touch him at any price. How
often, 1 wonder, during tho next week or
SO did we wish that we were favored like
an Arabi
By the timo that we had done laughing
as heartily as our swollen lips would allow,
1t wos daylight, and the morning breeze
coming up from the sea, cutting lanes
through the dense marsh mists, and here
and there rolling them before It in great
balls OF neecy vapor. So we set our sail,
and having first taken a look at the two
lions and tho dead alligator, which
we were of course unable to skin, being
destitute OF means Of curing the pelts. we
started, and sailing through the lagoon,
followed the course Of the river on the fur.
Their side. At midday, when the breeze
dropped, wc were fortunate enough to find
a convenient piece Of dry land on which to
camp and light a fire, and here wc cooked
Some wild duck and some of the water
bucks fiesh-not in a very appetizing way,
1t is true, but still, sufficiently. The rest
of tho bucks flesh we cut into strips and
hung in the sun, to dry into "biltong," as
1 believe the South African Dutch call
flesh thus prepared. On this welcome
patch Of dry land we stopped till tho fol-
lowing dawn. md, as before, spent the
night in warfare with the mosquitoes. but
without other troubles.
1t was on the fourth day of our Journey,
when we had travelled, SO far as we could
reckon, about one hundred and thirty-1ye
to hundred and forty miles westward
from the coast. that the first event of any
real Importance occurred. On that morn
ing the usual wind failed us about eleven
O'Clock, and after pulling q little way we
were forced to halt, more crlcss exhausted,
at what appeared to be the junction of our
stream with another of an uniform width
of about fifty feet. Some trees grew near
at hnnd-tlle only trees in all this country
were along the banks of the rivcr-and UNI
der these we rested, md then, the land be-
ing fairly dry just here, walked n little
way along the edge of tho river to pros
pect, and shoot a fe,y Waterfowl for fooI.
Before we had gone fifty yards we per-
ccived that all hopes of getting further
up the stream in the wllale-boat were at
an end, for no.two hundred yards above
where we had stopped was IL succession of
shadows and mud-banks, with not six
inches of water over them. It was q watery
cuJ-dcsdc.
Turning back, we alkedsome way along
the banks of the ether river, and soon cana
to the conclusion, from various indications,
that 1t was not a river at nll. but an ancient
canal, such as is to be seen above Mombasa,
on the Zanzibar coast, connecting the Tana
river with the Oay, in such q way as to en-
able h shipping coming down the Tana
to cross to the other river, and reach the
sea by 1t, and thus avoid the very danger
q bar that blocks the mouth of the Tana.
canal before us had evidently been
OH b. -,,pn Of s.-.- -elputi- -ariod o!
the worlds history, and the results of his
digging still remained in tho shape Of the
raised banks, that had no doubt once
formed t~owing-paths. Except here and
there, where they had been followed out
or had fallen in, the banks of still, binding
clay We're at @ uniform distance from each
other, and the depth also appeared to ba
uniform. Current, there was little OF
none, and, as n consequence, tho surface o.
tho water was choked with vegetable
growth, interscctcd by little paths of clear
water, made, I suppose, by the constant
passage OF Waterfowl, iguanas, and othe,
vermin. Now, as it was evident that we
could not proceed up tho river, it became
equally evident that we must either Try the
canal, or else return to the sea. We could
not stop where we were, to be baked by
the sun and eaten up by the mosquitoes
till we died Of fever in that drcary marsh.
"Wcll, I suppose that we must try It," ]
said; and the others assented in their vari.
GUS ways-Leo, as though it were the best
joke in the world; Job, In respectful dis
gust; and Mahomcd, with an invocation to
the Prophet, and a comprehensive curse
upon all unbelievers and their ways OF
thought and travel.